Capture of Béjaïa (1510) facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Capture of Béjaïa
Part of Spanish campaigns in the Maghreb (1497–1535)
The fort of Béjaïa
Date 1510 Location Béjaïa Result Spanish victory
Belligerents
Emirate of Béjaïa	Spanish Empire
Commanders and leaders
Abdelaziz Hafsi	Pedro Navarro
Strength
10,000 men	5,000 men 13 ships
Casualties and losses
300 dead 200 captured	Unknown

The capture of Béjaïa was the battle in which the Spanish Empire took possession of Béjaïa (also known as Bougie), then an emirate ruled by a branch of the Hafsid dynasty. This took place in 1510. The Spanish lost the city again 45 years later to Salah Rais and the Kingdom of Kuku in the Capture of Bougie (1555).

Béjaïa 1551

Background

According to Leo the African, the city of Béjaïa was surrounded by an ancient wall and had has colleges where law and mathematics are taught, mosques, souks, and hospitals serving a population estimated at "8000 hearths”.

Towards the end of the fifteenth century, Muslims were driven out of Spain by the Catholic Monarchs and took refuge in cities on the coast of North Africa such activities Oran, Algiers and Béjaïa. From these bases they organised corsair attacks from these places harassing the Spaniards and damaging their trade. In Béjaïa, Sultan Abdelaziz withdrew the commercial privileges enjoyed by the Catalan merchants in 1473. He also sent reinforcements to the Zayyanid rulers of Mers el-Kébir and Oran when they were attacked by the Spanish.

In 1509, after the taking of Oran, Cardinal Cisneros commissioned Pedro Navarro, to seize several other places on the Algerian coast used by the corsairs. Navarro set sail for Béjaïa on 1 January 1510. On 5 January the squadron reaches the city. Spanish and Arab or Spanish sources diverge appreciably on several points concerning the battle that followed.

See also

In Spanish: Conquista de Bugía (1510) para niños